Friday, October 23, 2009

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

My obsession with birthday parties started on my oldest son Nuno's first birthday. That was 8 years ago. I still can't believe it's been that long. For his 1st birthday I bought a really expensive cake, had really cute invitations that went with the theme of the cake (circles I believe) , bought sand buckets to fill with toys for the loot bags and blew up balloons until I was blue in the face. I recruited a few friends to help that night and so it began.................... Most of the friends I have think I'm a little nutty for staying up all night working on these parties but I know that my kids love them and that those friends, who think I'm nutty, also love them. And I love making my boys (especially) and friends happy. It makes me happy. After my last party, just last week, several people have said you should have a blog. So here I am starting my party blog. I will be the first to say my parties are not perfect, my cakes always have some funny imperfections, I may not finish all of the details but the ideas are sound and fun and the possibilities are endless. I have 2 boys. Nuno 8 and Rui 4. I usually do 2 separate parties but this year I decided to combine the two. Here is my inspiration:




They both have October birthdays and this year the party fell on the same weekend as the opening of the new Spike Jonze movie WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. When I first saw that preview months ago I almost squeeled out loud, I was so excited. I knew that day this would be the theme for this year's party. I started researching all details of the book, looked on line for cake ideas, invitation ideas, anything related to Where the Wild Things Are. I have an amazing friend Kat, her invitations always set the stage for the party. Without her I would be lost in the beginning.
I decided that the cake had to be something fun. I looked on-line for Wild Thing inspirations and in the end this was my cake!





This was so much fun. My favorite part of party preparation is Kat joining me until 1:00am while I obsess about the party and my cake! A little wine, a little cake, always a great night.
Now onto decorations.
My husband built the boys a great tree fort this year and I thought "wow, that will make a great sailboat!" Here is Max's boat to the land of the Wild Things.




Nuno and Rui set sail for the land of the Wild Things!

I bought very inexpensive fabric for the sails and plastic table cloths from the Party Store for the waves. So easy and yet looks so great.
For fun I set up a craft table where each child could make a crown and scepter so they could be kings or queens of the Wild things.


Nuno decorating


Nuno king of the Wild Things


Rui king of the Wild Things


Georgia very serious about her crown.


Even the parents had fun. Thanks Jen!


We had one relay race for fun and prizes. Everyone got into the game and it was a ton of fun.








Thanks to everyone for playing along!


Since this party is in October I decided to pass on the candy loot bags, instead every child got a mini flashlight to carry on Halloween night.
I know we had a really great time and I hope our friends did too. We have a great bunch of them and this party is as much for the adults as it is for our kids.
Thanks to everyone for coming.

More to come soon!